About “Last Year”

A tranquil song in two parts that speaks of the “Last Year”, implying both the year before, and also the last year of the narrator’s life. The first part is a narrator recounting the months the led to his ultimate suicide in December. The second part is the song that she “sang at [his] funeral”.

What have the artists said about the song?

Marika’s part is another a song within a song. The first part, where Joe is singing, is someone reading sort of literally of this decline and depression and death over the course of a year. And the final line is “to be sang at my funeral,” which leads into this person singing at his funeral.

It’s a very, very sad song. It was the last song to be added to the album. It was one that was written at Christmas. Joe was talking to me about it and like, “Yeah, it’s really, really, really sad. I’m not sure I can show it to anybody, it’s depressing.” But it’s a beautiful song, so we put it on the album.